Enfilade

This panel is part of the AISU conference in Palermo:

‘National’ Churches and Mediterranean Ports in the Early Modern Period

Foreign Communities Reshaping the Urban Fabric

Chiese ‘nazionali’ nei porti del Mediterraneo in età moderna (secoli XV–XVIII)

Il ruolo delle comunità forestiere nella riconfigurazione del tessuto urbano

Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana Congress, Palermo, 10–13 September 2025

Organized by Nadia Rizzo and Carl Alexander Auf der Heyde

Proposals due by 3 May 2025

The establishment of ‘national’ mercantile groups in major Mediterranean port cities—key hubs for cross-cultural exchange—developed continuously from the Middle Ages into the early modern period (Colletta 2012). These ports became meeting places for foreign merchants who organised themselves into ‘nations’, structured associations based primarily on geographical origin, but also on shared language and religion (Petti Balbi 2001). These communities did not limit their activities to commercial spaces such as ‘fondaci’ and ‘logge’.

From at least the fifteenth century, they established meeting and worship places, often gaining patronage for chapels within existing churches. The most ambitious goal of the foreign communities, however, was the construction of a dedicated church, consecrated to their patron saint and intended primarily to meet the religious and liturgical needs of the group (Koller, Kubersky-Piredda 2015 [for national churches in Rome]). In addition to serving as a devotional landmark, the construction of a national church was a clear statement of the community’s presence, identity, and wealth, exerting a tangible and visible influence on the urban and architectural landscape of the host city.

From the mid-sixteenth century, coinciding with a wave of significant urban redevelopment, there was a marked increase in the construction of national churches independent of local religious communities. This phenomenon intensified during the seventeenth century, alongside the architectural fervour of the newly emerging Counter-Reformation orders, fostering a virtuous cycle of competition not only between nations, but also among religious congregations and national communities.

This panel seeks to explore the impact of foreign communities on the urban transformation of Mediterranean port cities between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, with a focus on the institution of the national church as a key reference point. We invite proposals in Italian, English, Spanish, and French that approach this topic from different perspectives and levels of analysis, including:
• Research on the settlement system of a single nation in multiple mercantile centers
• Specific studies on individual national churches
• Diachronic investigations on the settlement of a foreign group in a specific center (from chapels to national churches)
• Comparative overviews of multiple national churches in the same city

To apply, please fill out the form available at the bottom of each session presentation. The link for session 4.1 can be found here. Applicants are required to submit the paper abstract (maximum 5000 characters) and a brief biographical note. For any further information regarding the session, please contact the panel coordinators: Nadia Rizzo (Scuola Normale Superiore, nadia.rizzo@sns.it) and Carl Alexander Auf der Heyde (Università degli Studi di Palermo, carlalexander.aufderheyde@unipa.it).

The congress of the Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana (Italian Association of Urban History / AISU International) will meet in Palermo, 10–13 September 2025. This year’s theme is The Crossroad City: Relations and Exchanges, Intersections and Crossing Points in Urban Realities.